I’m sure many of you have some pretty cool tips and tricks when it comes to getting your kids to do things they don’t want to do like brush their teeth or eat their veggies. (By the way, I’m too lazy to sneak veggies into recipes; I simply give my kids . . . → Read More: Try This Tuesday: Tricks To Get Kids To Eat Healthier Foods]]>

I’m sure many of you have some pretty cool tips and tricks when it comes to getting your kids to do things they don’t want to do like brush their teeth or eat their veggies. (By the way, I’m too lazy to sneak veggies into recipes; I simply give my kids the choice to either eat them or eat them.)

I thought I’d share with you a few tips and tricks I use with my kids when it comes to that necessary thing called eating. One note of caution: some of these tricks, once introduced, become the new standard. For example, #3 has made it so my daughter will only eat her yogurt with sprinkles…unless I use the frustrated, angry mom voice because I’m sick of pulling out the *$%@ container of colored sugar for the third time that day. (Yes, she eats her weight in yogurt on a weekly basis.)

1. Use a straw with drinkable yogurt like Danimalsto minimize mess. Simply punch the straw through the foil top of the yogurt and serve! You can also use a straw for those individual applesauce cups—just cut the straw in half. (You might have to angle the cup a little to get every last sip.)
2. Don’t hesitate to cut off the crust. I’ve found my kids actually eat more of their sandwiches when I remove the crust. Sometimes I try to pull the whole “eat it, it’s better for you than the rest of the bread” thing and leave on the crust, they leave a good half-inch border of bread inside that crust line. Thinly shave off the crust and the sandwich disappears.
3. Top organic yogurt and applesauce with sugar sprinkles. You only need a titch of color to make a healthy side like yogurt seem like a real treat. (I don’t always let them eat their sides this way, but it is fun as a treat once in a while!)
4. Use a large cookie cutter to cut shapes out of sandwiches. You can even use a smaller cookie cutter to turn sliced cheese into sliced fun
5. Slice string cheese, hot dogs, mini peeled carrots and use toothpicks to make eating more fun. Of course you can also use toothpicks with bite-size pieces of fruit and veggies too. (This tip is for slightly older kids, so proceed with caution!)
6. A little bit of shredded cheese goes a long way. Think past the baked potato and tacos and add shredded cheese to steamed broccoli, scrambled eggs, even diced or sliced apples.
7. S’mores can be super messy trying to assemble those three key ingredients. Cut it down to two and use Keebler Fudge Stripes cookies in place of the graham crackers and Hershey bars. Toast your marshmallow and place between two cookies. So easy even a grownup can do it!

I am sure I have a few more tips to share but it’s 12:42am and I’m distracted by The Glee Project on Hulu. I’d love to hear what tricky things you do when it comes to food and kids!

Via IsThisReallyMyLife.com

Collections should include people, animals, trees, clothing, household objects, toys, food, transportation, places (e.g. park), weather (e.g. rain), elements (e.g. water) and a sun for day and . . . → Read More: Just For Fun Friday: Story Stones]]> I’ve seen a lot of different versions of story stones on the internet and have always thought that they are a great idea for fostering creativity and language development.

Collections should include people, animals, trees, clothing, household objects, toys, food, transportation, places (e.g. park), weather (e.g. rain), elements (e.g. water) and a sun for day and stars on a black stone for night.

Fairy tale or magical images, such as wings or wands, don’t teach kids how to come up with positive and realistic solutions to their problems, so I’ll rarely see such stones included in collections. For instance, if a character is sad because it starts raining while he is at the park, you can look for realistic solutions like sitting under a tree until it stops and then jumping in puddles rather than just waving a magic wand to make it go away. While there should always be room in your house for wildly imaginative play, story stones are a tool for modeling some positive problem solving skills.

You can paint your stones by hand in acrylic paint.  You don’t have to be an artist. Simple shapes and patterns work fine; in fact I think they look better.

Via Paint On The Ceiling.

What do you get when you mix an already-hyped-up-on-life toddler, a mini-cup of joe and stir? Babycinos, as in baby-sized cappuccinos.

While the cute little concoctions are nothing more than steamed . . . → Read More: Babycinos? Latest Coffee Craze Targets Tots]]> The small cups are a big hit with parents and toddlers, but not with everyone: ‘It’s a little too adult,’ one woman says.

What do you get when you mix an already-hyped-up-on-life toddler, a mini-cup of joe and stir? Babycinos, as in baby-sized cappuccinos.

While the cute little concoctions are nothing more than steamed milk with bits of chocolate or cinnamon sprinkled on top, they have become the in thing with the chi-chi crowd at a few coffee shops in Brooklyn, New York.

But do they make a latte sense?

“When their parents come in and get coffee, their child will get a babycino and feel included,” Gemma Redwood, the owner of Bittersweet said in an interview.

While the drink may be newish in the American market, the babycino has been at the center of a frothy debate in other parts of the world. Last fall an Australian blogger got a cupful from baristas and the coffee industry when she suggested a fund-raiser for a children’s hospital be funded with proceeds from, you guessed it, babycinos.

“I don’t think anyone understood the campaign,” said Yvette DuBourdieu. “We’re not asking for cafés to spoon out babycinos forever, it’s an opt-in campaign for family-friendly cafés that want to attract more business. It’s about connecting families with their local business and raising money for charity.”

Some lovers of gourmet coffee are even quite steamed about giving a child an adult-like beverage.

“It’s a little too adult,” said one woman interviewed by WPIX.

Sean Edwards, managing director of cafe consultancy company Cafe Biz says, ”Smart operators are using babycinos to boost their business. Not only are they introducing a new generation to coffee drinking but they know that if the kids are happy then mum will stay and have another cup.”

What do you think? Is the babycino an innocent treat to keep baby occupied at the coffee shop? Or is it a cup full of trouble?

Via hlntv.com.

What is Family?

Unfortunately many people have been faced with the excruciating decision of whether or . . . → Read More: Strained Family Relationships: Cut The Ties To Protect Your Kids]]>

Note:  I currently find myself struggling with a difficult family relationship. My young children depend on me and I have to do what’s best for us, no matter how hard it seems.  Do you struggle with family relationships?

What is Family?

Unfortunately many people have been faced with the excruciating decision of whether or not to continue a strained family relationship- it could be a parent, a sibling, a grandparent, a son or a daughter. These relationships, when stressed or tense, are the worst to endure because our family means a lot to us. If you have to cut the ties, it’s usually because you feel you have no other choice.

You see, I love Fiestaware dishes. After decades of living with plain white dishes, I’m now all about the mixy-matchyness of these great colors. . . . → Read More: Don’t Sort The Fiestaware By Color]]> Once all of our children are college educated I plan to move to a small cottage, where my kitchen may very well look like this:

You see, I love Fiestaware dishes. After decades of living with plain white dishes, I’m now all about the mixy-matchyness of these great colors. I can’t bring myself to match them up. The whole beauty of Fiestaware is the the celebration of colors . My husband knows that a good way to drive me crazy is to sort the dishes by color as he unloads the dishwasher.

But I have this minor issue: I like to browse online, and if I find any great deals on Fiestaware I just. Cannot. Resist. I consider it my duty to give it a loving home.

The urge to buy happened again a this morning.  I’ve been stalking Lemongrass – my current favorite color – online, and came across a pedestal serving bowl I just had to have.  It was bargain priced.  Free shipping. Discover card points. 1-Click-Shopping. Done.   My new lovely will be here on Saturday (don’t you just love Amazon Prime?)

Maybe I’ll invite my husband to live in my dream cottage with me.  But only if he stops sorting the Fiestaware by color.

A Hoke County . . . → Read More: Preschooler’s Homemade Lunch Replaced With Nuggets]]> Wow.  If this happened to one of my children, I would be taking a serious look at the school lunch system.  Ok, maybe the apple juice wasn’t the best choice (a small water bottle is our go-to lunch drink) but everything else?  School appropriate, in my opinion.  What are your thoughts?

A Hoke County preschooler was fed chicken nuggets for lunch because a state worker felt that her homemade lunch did not have enough nutritional value, according to a report by the Carolina Journal.

The West Hoke Elementary School student was in her More at Four classroom when a state agent who was inspecting lunch boxes decided that her packed lunch — which consisted of a turkey and cheese sandwich, a banana, apple juice and potato chips — “did not meet U.S. Department of Agriculture guidelines,” the Journal reports.

The decision was made under consideration of a regulation put in place by the the Division of Child Development and Early Education at the Department of Health and Human Services, which requires all lunches served in pre-kindergarten programs to meet USDA guidelines.

“When home-packed lunches do not include all of the required items, child care providers must supplement them with the missing ones,” the Journal reports.

The student’s mother told the Journal she received a note from the school about the incident and was charged $1.25 for the cafeteria tray, from which her daughter only ate three chicken nuggets.

The note explained how students who did not bring “healthy lunches” would be offered the missing portions and that parents could be charged for the cost of the cafeteria food, the Journal reports.

The mother, who was not identified in the report, expressed concern about school officials telling her daughter that she wasn’t “packing her lunch box properly.”

Via FoxNews.com.

Here is a list of the 10 brands and shades that contain the most lead, according the FDA’s study. A full analysis of all 400 varieties is available here.

If you’re going to be on either end of a kiss this Valentine’s Day, you might want to consider smooching bare-lipped. Most lipstick . . . → Read More: Lipstick Contains Lead? Who Knew?]]>

Here is a list of the 10 brands and shades that contain the most lead, according the FDA’s study. A full analysis of all 400 varieties is available here.

If you’re going to be on either end of a kiss this Valentine’s Day, you might want to consider smooching bare-lipped. Most lipstick contains lead.

Lead has been banned in paint since 1978 because of its toxicity at low levels, but it still shows up in small amounts in some of the best-selling lipstick brands.

The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, which did an analysis of a study of lead in lipstick conducted by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, wants consumers to know that most of the 400 different lipsticks tested were positive for the substance.

“Recognizing that there is no safe level of lead exposure, we need to be protecting women and children from all levels of exposure,” said Stacy Malkan, co-founder of the campaign—a non-profit coalition of environmental- and cancer-prevention groups.

Malkan’s group wants the FDA to set a limit for how much lead lipstick can contain and to study whether there are any dangers to having the substance applied to human lips, particularly the lips of children and pregnant women. “We know that ingestion of lipstick happens. It gets into our bodies,” she said, noting that lead accumulates in people.

The group said that five of the nine lipstick brands with the most lead are sold by L’Oreal, the world’s largest cosmetics maker.

L’Oreal’s “Color Sensational” Pink Petal had the most lead of any lipstick tested at 7.19 parts per million. By comparison, children’s products sold in the U.S. are forbidden to have more than 100 parts per million of lead.

“The FDA’s independent study, which will be published in the May/June 2012 issue of the Journal of Cosmetic Science, confirms that lipsticks pose no safety concerns for the millions of women who use them daily,” L’Oreal said in a statement sent to Reuters. “The lead levels detected by the FDA in the study are also within the limits recommended by global public health authorities for cosmetics, including lipstick.”

The FDA, for its part, agreed there is no cause for alarm.

“The FDA did not find high levels of lead in lipstick,” FDA spokeswoman Tamara Ward said. “We developed and tested a method for measuring lead in lipstick and did not find levels that would raise health concerns.”

Still, Malkan said the government should take some more steps to ensure the safety of those who use lipstick. An advisory committee to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has taken a position that there is no safe level of lead for children. So, why asked Malkan should it be OK for their to be lead in lipstick? And, in particular, for certain brands to have more than others?

“There are no safety standards,” Malkan said.

So, if you’re still lead conscious, consider how you’ll handle your lips and those you’ll be sharing them with this Valentine’s Day.

Via FoxNews.com.